Scrum Master (Extreme Programming / XP)

The opportunity

This is not a ceremony-only Scrum Master brief. You make agility real at the keyboard — coaching one or more cross-functional teams to combine Scrum discipline with Extreme Programming. You protect flow, raise craft, and refuse the false choice between speed and quality.

If you can run a tight sprint and sit with developers until TDD, pairing, refactoring and CI are the default, this role was written for you.

Why this role is different

• You coach process and engineering. Stand-ups without TDD is half a job.
  
• You close the gap between the Product Owner’s intent and the quality of the code that ships.
  
• You measure what matters: velocity, defect leakage, build health, pairing cadence, sustainable pace.
  
• You are a servant-leader with teeth. Impediments get removed, not logged and forgotten.
  

What you will do

Scrum facilitation
Facilitate planning, stand-ups, reviews and retrospectives that produce decisions, not theatre. Remove impediments fast. Coach Scrum values and self-organisation until they are habits. Partner with the Product Owner on a healthy, ordered backlog.
XP practice coaching
Embed TDD, pair programming, continuous integration, refactoring and collective code ownership. Treat TDD as the default path to simple, maintainable code. Run short cycles that end in working software. Protect sustainable pace — deadlines matter, burnout is not a delivery strategy.
Agile coaching
Mentor cross-functional teams. Keep tight feedback loops with stakeholders. Publish a clear picture of team health.

Requirements

What you must bring

• 5+ years as Scrum Master or Agile Coach in software teams
  
• Mandatory: practical Extreme Programming (XP) alongside Scrum
  
• Hands-on coaching of TDD, pairing and CI/CD with real teams
  
• Design patterns, refactoring and unit testing
  
• Short-cycle iterative delivery
  
• Elite facilitation, conflict resolution and communication
  
• Expert-level Jira
  

What will set you apart

CSM / PSM I or II · Certified Scrum Developer (highly valued) · Kanban / SAFe / Scrumban used with judgement · a development background (useful, not required)

The person who thrives here

Calm under pressure. Direct without theatre. More interested in working software than perfect boards. Comfortable saying “we are not pairing enough” — then sitting down to pair.